<p>My D has a terrible time with standardized tests. My advice to parents is to review their first PSAT/SAT scores and, if they do not correlate to class rank and GPA then get them into a test taking program and keep working on it. Also, I should have had her take the ACT as suggested above. In my D's case it is not a case of lack of knowledge but strategy and stress. She managed the strategy but never mastered the stress. I think she will need hypnosis for her graduate exams! </p>
<p>Fortunately she got into her 1st choice school but she has other wonderful qualities that compensated for her weak SAT.</p>
<p>People always say that PSAT scores are predictive of SATs, and from what I've seen of other people's scores that seems to be generally true... but my PSAT score was a 232 (78CR/74M/80W), and my SAT only a 2160 (800CR/650M/710W). I wonder if exhaustion had something to do with it (because the SAT is so much longer), and if not, why else my score went down so much?</p>
<p>My D refused to prepare for PSAT and got a 209. But now she is a little worried about the writing section of the SAT, and wonders if she should take a prep class. Her school offers something that is four Saturdays, acouple of hours each Sat. I think (and it costs $190).She said she would be willing to do that. I think she was a little disappointed with her PSAT. Anyway, is it a good idea? Neither of my older two did any prepping for the SAT (the old shorter SAT), so this is something I don't really know that much about. I guess if she is willing to go to the class, I should encourage it? Her main worry is that she'll do poorly on the writing section and have to take the test twice. My kids hate these tests and want to do the minimum . . .</p>
<p>mstee: the price is good $190 and she doesn't mind going, so..... do it.</p>
<p>We paid a bunch more so that sounds like a good price. Hey if it works and she only has to take the test once, then part of the prep class is "paid for" with the "savings" from not having to take it again.</p>
<p>Taking the prep test will improve her score and it sounds like she wouldn't practice "on her own".</p>
<p>thisyearsgirl - Your critical reading scores correlated very well, and that is probably the section that has the least to do with any kind of prepping. The math on the SAT incorporates everything up to Algebra II now. There's a difference in the material covered between the two tests, which could have been a factor. Ditto with the writing section. No essay on the PSAT - don't know how much a factor that was in your score though.</p>
<p>this years girl: Your "lower than expected" SAT score may have been a fluke... you did awesome on the PSAT. Are you a junior or senior??? If you are a junior, you'll have to take the SAT next fall during the NMSF stage. </p>
<p>Your scores "dipped" in math and writing. Maybe your essay writing was the problem.... do you think it was??? may need to brush up on that.. do you remember having problems with a particular type of math problems? If so, get a practice book, find those types and get familiar with them... </p>
<p>I have my son go thru practice tests and find types of problems that he hasn't had much experience with and do those in case "that type" shows up in the SAT (he takes is tomorrow morn -- say a prayer!! :) </p>
<p>Next time you take the SAT, get plenty of sleep for at least 2 nights before (yes, 2 nights - not just the night before...) eat a GOOD "stick to your ribs" breakfast (not a bunch of sweets) and bring a snack & OJ for mid test break.</p>
<p>dds mom: Congrats to dd getting into 1st choice. My second son is not a great standardized test taker so we'll be in the same boat when he's getting ready for college. His grades are great (straight A's) but standardized tests are timed and for some reason, he often doesn't finish various sections. He needs to "move along" faster.</p>
<p>Often students have a significant summer experience after their 11th grades
(RSI, NASA, TASP, volunteering, travel & study abroad, internships, college classes, summer jobs, ...)
Kids can/will experience significant growth & maturing from these experiences.
Therefore it's not even desirable to start essays during that summer.
They also need time to let the summer experience sink in first,
reflect on that, then write essays during the fall.
So it's legit to start essays in the fall.</p>
<p>Separately, some kids do not want to over emphasize the college appl process by starting during the summer.
These are often very low-key & understated kids who are not obsessed by the process.
Again, for such kids, it's workable for them to condense/concentrate the process by writing essays during the fall, rather than spreading these out to many months starting during the summer.</p>
<p>One comment on the common application. Don't assume that just because a school accepts the common app, it will be easier to apply to that school versus one that doesn't accept it. D chose a safety school because of the common app. That particular supplement required a great deal more time than she had. Some of the other single applications were far easier to complete. </p>
<p>The whole college process reminds me of the end of the movie "Parenthood" when the grandmother is talking about how the carousel is boring because it's the same thing going around and around whereas the roller coaster is so exciting and different and much more fun. This roller coaster process has mostly been fun (application deadlines are not fun) and the best part of it has been seeing our D mature, make decisions, modify those decisions, and get ready to move on. We will miss her terribly but my father says that the only thing worse than when your kids leave home is when they don't. I agree.</p>
<p>It's already been said, but I can't emphasis how NICE it is to have an acceptance early on in the process. If you can find a rolling admission school that meets your needs, I STRONGLY suggest you get an application in early- before Nov 1. If you check the first few pages of "Master List of Acceptances" you can get an idea as to which schools have rolling admissions and start notifying kids in November. The later pages of the thread put us in alphabetical order so it was hard to tell which schools notified kids early on in the process- the first few pages of the thread are in chronological order by acceptance. There are some great schools that have rolling admission including U of Mich- Rice- Clemson and a whole lot of others. I don't care what level of school responds first- but that first Acceptance usually cheers up any sullen or jaded HS Senior. And it makes the Holiday Season much more Joyful.</p>
<p>More advice (sorry if repeated):
1. If your child is not at the "top of the heap," be realistic. Don't get swayed by the "elite school or else" tarin of thought. For both kids, I used to 25/75 SAT range as a rough "guesstimate" of where they would get in. It is a starting point, at least. Average GPA is tough because if your child is in Honors/AP classes, it is hard to determine whether to rely on the wieighted or unweighted GPA.
2. If your child is really interested in a particular school, be sure that they let that school know!
3. Start the visits EARLY Junior year. Pull out the school calendar around Labor Day and plot out where the holidays fall. At times, the visits will feel like the "Bataan Death March," but they are invaluable. Plus, if you get them in early, it still gives your S or D time to do an overnight (which some colleges allow only for accepted students) prior to making their final decision.
4. Apply early! Both of my kids had a couple of apps submitted in early September-and both got their first "fat envelope" before Halloween. I insisted that both kids get apps done before Thanksgiving-both kids temporarily hated me, but both were REALLY glad not to be spending the Christmas break doing apps.
5. Recognize that the process will probably provide some of the more tense and some of the more rewarding times with your teenager. S and I really bonded on our trips through the Midwest and Northeast-and yet there were times that both of us were really mad at each other. One of my friends called me recently to report that my son had admitted how glad that he had a Mom who was on top of all the admissions stuff-made my day!</p>
<p>bxian, your point about using the 25/75 SAT range brings me back to a thread I had started in the fall. My child's lopsided SATs puts him in the 25th percentile in CR and 75th percentile in Math at many, many schools we would like to consider. When this is the case, how do you categorize schools as safeties and reaches? I got some good suggestions on the other thread but would welcome additional input.</p>
<p>I've been looking at Naviance graphs for my school to get a better idea of how my stats match up. (I was delighted to see that my grades and scores are right in the middle of the 'accepted' range for my current first choice, Swarthmore.) It's a good way to see where people from your individual school have been accepted, based on their stats. It's not the only factor, obviously, but the charts give you a reasonable idea of what your chances are. I loosely categorize a reach as a school where my stats are at the lower end of the 'accepted' range, a match as one where I'm in the middle, and a safety as one where my stats are higher than the majority of accepted students.</p>
<p>Worrywart-my S was in the exact same situation with lopsided SAT scores. His math was above the 75th percentile for most schools he applied to-CR was middle of the range to 10 points below 25th. Also, his writing score was quite good, but since he is a "guinea pig" senior with the new SAT, not sure how that left him. His combined math/CR score was above the 25/75 range (per US news) for 2 of the schools that have accepted him so far-and for the other two, it was at the higher end of the 75/25 range. He will not hear from the others until March. To complicate matters further, his weighted GPA (because of honors/AP classes) was quite a bit higher than unweighted, and he is showing a "last minute surge" with very strong first semester senior year grades. Had I known that I was going to "pour it on" at the end, I might have suggested a couple of more "reachier" schools. For both of my kids, I focused on "suggesting" schools where their combined SAT's were toward the higher end of the 25/75 range. D got into the majority of the schools that she applied to 2 years ago. However, 2 schools rejected her where her SAT scores were at the higher end of their range, and I was convinced that the school that she now happily attends would not accept her. How wrong I was!</p>
<p>Thanks, bxian. I wasn't sure whether schools consider the combined CR/M/W score or look at each individually. With my son's high writing score (like yours), the combined total looks pretty strong.</p>
<p>jlauer95: Thanks for the congrats. It was very stressful few months waiting for the reply as she knew she was tenous for acceptance because of her SAT scores. She also applied EA to Fordham just in case but withdrew when she got her ED for NYU.</p>
<p>As far ast taking the test, this may be part of my D's problem as well. She excels when she has as much time as necessary and finishes quickly. It could be the knowledge that the clock is ticking that changes things. She wants to be a lawyer so she better start becoming very good at testing.</p>
<p>No longer a senior parent because both of mine are now in college, but I'll butt in anyway.</p>
<p>Just a word of warning -- at least for selective places, don't look at 25-75 percentile ranges of SAT/ACT scores and think that if your child's score is in that range, acceptance is assured. What those stats do NOT tell you is how many people with scores in that range are NOT accepted. It can be sobering to look through the acceptance/rejection threads on the individual school discussion boards and see how many kids who look essentially perfect looking at the numbers don't get in.</p>
<p>The scores in the right range will get a foot in the door. More will be required to get all the way through.</p>
<p>I'm just talking about elite places here, the ones with very low acceptance rates and very high scores. I've known people to assume that their darlings were sure to get into Harvard or wherever because they had the requisite high scores, high grades, ECs, and the like -- and then were devastated when they didn't. (I don't know if the kids felt the same way.) </p>
<p>On another note, one of the best things my daughter did was rely on the ACT. She did better on it and didn't suffer the same test anxiety because it is score choice.</p>